4K Skills
In 4K, we focus on more than academics.
"School is not about school. It's about pursuing wisdom. It's about becoming virtuous beings. It's about soul transformation."
- Andrew Kern, Circe Institute
Non-academic skills
"Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands. We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration — it is how we fold our experiences into our being… The Asaro tribe of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea has a beautiful saying: “Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives in the muscle.”
- Brené Brown, Rising Strong
Academic skills expected of your 4K child
In 4K, we focus on more than academics.
"School is not about school. It's about pursuing wisdom. It's about becoming virtuous beings. It's about soul transformation."
- Andrew Kern, Circe Institute
Non-academic skills
- nature connection
- global / cultural understanding
- teamwork
- kindness
- empathy
- understanding of the way things work in the world around them
- ability to focus and sustain on an activity for extended periods of time
- ability to work independently on tasks (play alone without seeking attention)
- creativity
- imagination
- curiosity
- wonder
- generosity
- perseverance
- ability to notice details and changes in their environment
- realistic optimism
- It is okay to realize you may not have done excellent work, but we must think positively about what we can do to work hard so we become more proud of our work the next time!
- responsibility
- for their own items (backpacks, coats, boots, mittens, folders, etc.)
- for our classroom environment (keeping materials in good condition and our room clean)
- for keeping peace, calm, and kindness in our classroom
- independence
- humility
- self-discipline (doing good because a child understands why it is important to do good actions instead of doing good out of fear)
- compassion
- forgiveness
- manners (politeness, please, thank you, table etiquette)
- honesty
- speaking in full sentences
- asking questions in full sentences, asking a question instead of a statement
- i.e. "May I please use the bathroom?" NOT "I have to pee." or "Bathroom?"
- i.e. "Could I please have more stickers?" NOT "There are no more stickers."
- answering questions with answers that make sense
- authenticity
- choosing challenging work
- focus / concentration
- memory
"Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands. We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration — it is how we fold our experiences into our being… The Asaro tribe of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea has a beautiful saying: “Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives in the muscle.”
- Brené Brown, Rising Strong
Academic skills expected of your 4K child
- cutting
- comfortable with scissors
- correct hand grip
- consistent hand preference
- handwriting
- correct pencil grip
- enough pressure on the paper to make writing easily legible
- ability to copy shapes and letters (not just trace them)
- name
- identifying name
- know spelling of name
- ability to write first name neatly
- self portrait
- ability to draw themselves (including all parts of body - the more details, the better - i.e. head, body, arms, legs, fingers, toes, eyes, nose, ears, etc.)
- language
- 16 or more uppercase letter names
- 9 or more lowercase letter names
- 8 letter sounds (in our classroom we heavily focus on sounds as the sounds are most important in learning to read)
- print awareness
- holds book correctly
- can point to the title
- can point to the front cover / front of book
- flips one page at a time
- "reads" with finger from left to right on top of the words on the page
- sequencing events that happen in stories
- rhyming
- can tell you words that rhyme
- recites alphabet (should be able to SAY the alphabet A-Z)
- math
- colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, gray, white, pink, brown)
- shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval)
- recognize numbers 0-10
- count to 30
- understands positional words
- on
- in front of
- in back of
- under
- behind
- next to
- between
- understands comparison words
- big/little
- same/different
- top/bottom
- first/last
- more/less
- patterns
- copies patterns
- extends patterns
- creates their own patterns
- sorting
- sorts by color
- sorts by shape
- sorts by size